Recent trends in server technology include servers that may be contained in an enclosure, where the enclosure may be mounted in a rack. Because these servers may be rack mounted, the servers may need to conform to the dimensions of the rack. The servers may include various hardware devices including storage devices, which may also have to conform to the dimensions of the rack. Thus, the amount of storage space available to the server may be increased or decreased by adding or removing storage devices. The storage devices may be coupled to a common communications channel that exists on a backplane, where the communications channel includes a backplane controller. In this manner, the individual storage devices may operate as a larger array of storage devices where the backplane controller coordinates storing and retrieving information from the storage devices. When multiple storage devices exist within a server, it may be desirable to segment the storage space by dividing the communications channel into sub-channels. Dividing the communications channel may require separate backplane controllers for each sub-channel.